A band that had an affect on the death-metal genre and was a huge inspiration source other metal bands as well,
Kreator is one of the legendary thrash-trio from Germany which also included
Sodom and
Destruction. They made themselves huge by releasing their raw straight-ahead thrash blast called
Pleasure To Kill, and with time the band would become a more lighter but very technical, aggressive and advancing thrash-metal band. But after their release of
Coma Of Souls the band really fell into a swamp of failure. Some people will still look at their career and say that it was flawless but if you have heard all of
Kreator's albums and if you are a metal-fanatic you will notice that there were some huge and critical flaws during a period of time. All albums after
Coma Of Souls and
Violent Revolution were a hard time for the front man
Mille Petrozza, because while the band was moving on great with their very aggressive and technical thrash but then
Mille started to experiment with their sound.
Renewal is one of the best examples of
Mille's attempts to broaden their sound, because instead of raw thrash it had more industrial elements in it. The rest did have some thrash, but it couldn't take back the fans that left the band because of
Mille's experimenting. Luckily, the band returned to their past and succeeded to create a fusion between their old frenetic thrash sounded, the band's technical abilities and some of the left overs from the experimental period, making
Violent Revolution to one of their best albums and
Enemy Of God being an accomplished follow-up.
Kreator still reigns alongside with
Sodom and
Destruction in this current day and all of them are releasing high-quality and refreshed thrash-metal.
Renewal may be industrial metal plagued, but it is not the most hated or disliked album in
Kreator's career.
Cause For Conflict was released in 1995 and is to be considered as their most disliked album according to the fans among others. Totally understandable, as some of you might have heard of the "Chaos Theory", a theory that explains that even in chaos there is a certain order. This album could've been compared to the Chaos Theory but this is more like disorder in chaos. Thrash-metal is the main course in this album but it is horribly disjointed, and there are many things that really turns off the listener. Some songs have something that I like to call "Invocator fever", as
Invocator is a retro-thrash band from Denmark and they played a strange style of thrash. There were lots of standard riffing, lack of lead work and the drumming didn't fit the songs, and
Kreator happens to have that problem on this album.
Kreator does not live up to their reputation in this album, with some songs having an overload of speed while others have problems with the guitar work.
Mille's vocals are also a factor that disturbs the songs, as usually he sings with a slight sinister and aggressive scream, but on this album he basically just hollering which feels quite out of place compared to his other vocal performances.
Kreator often uses lyrics based on religious themes, hatred, violence and terrorist based lyrics, and that might be one of few things that actually works for this album. There are though some nice moments that would please the ear of a thrash-metal fan.
Sculpture Of Regret and
Lost would be a couple of candidates worthy to be called successes in this album.
Lost appears to have a some sort of rip-off in the riffing though, as it sounds like
Metallica'sDisposable Heroes.
Men Without God would also be a worthy successor, as it is a quite straight-ahead thrash-blast but its intensive and rushed moments still makes it a bit un-attractive.
There are no ways in the name of possibility that this album could stand up against their other albums. Like
Invocator,
Kreator tends to use lots of ordinary riffing that has already been used, and they also tend to use huge amounts of double bass kicking to save the songs from belly flops. There were many things that bothered me, such as
Mille's vocals, the guitar work, the drum work; everything on this album felt so rushed and too wound up. One thing I slightly liked was that I think I have never experienced so much bass frequency in a
Kreator album before. But I still can't enjoy it because of the uninteresting guitars with
Mille's annoying vocals. To be honest with you I have only two songs here that I feel brings back their past in such shape that they could be called as thrash-metal songs, but where is the technical and innovate guitar work!?
Mille Petrozza is indeed a skilled guitarist but this performance does not cut it, as most riffs are basically recycled and most of the guitar solos are short, still chaotic but nothing groundbreaking. And what's up with the drums?! Most drum sections don't really fit in the songs, but people who love lots of double bass kicking might be pleased by this album but for listeners like myself, it was just too much.
I don't want to say this but this was the worst
Kreator album I have heard yet, as everything felt so rushed and there were very few songs that I enjoyed. Usually you hope to experience some progression and stuff like that when you listen to a new album from an artist or band that has technical skills and can deliver difficult and advanced music, and while
Kreator still shows the listener that they can deliver precise music in
Cause For Conflict, there are still too much flaws in this album. I will not recommend this album, as this is an album that you have to decide yourself if you want to hear it or not. If want a experience the real spirit of
Kreator I suggest that you look for albums like
Coma Of Souls, Extreme Aggression or Violent Revolution.
Pros
+ At least it sounds like thrash-metal
+ There is after all a bit aggression in this album
Cons
- The overall material feels so horribly rushed
- To much double bass drumming
- Few catchy moments
- Mille's loud hollering is a real turn off
- Everything feels so recycled, nothing ground breaking from this album
Recommended Tracks
-- Sculpture Of Regret
-- Lost
This album will receive a poor 2/5
